HAMILTON - A 6-year-old girl who died in suspicious circumstances suffered severe head injuries during the six months she lived with her mother and another woman, a depositions hearing in the Hamilton District Court was told yesterday.
Belinda Lee Edmonds and Dorothy Tipene both denied charges of the manslaughterof Edmonds' daughter Mereana Edmonds on May 10 last year.
Prosecutor Ross Douch told the court that Mereana had lived with her grandmother in Hawkes Bay until November 1998, when she came to live with Edmonds and Tipene in Boundary Rd, Hamilton.
Edmonds, a 33-year-old cleaner, worked nights and Tipene, aged 30 and now unemployed, worked during the day.
Mr Douch said that on the night Mereana died, Tipene phoned Edmonds at work to say the little girl was ill.
Ambulance staff were called and found her dead about 9.30 pm.
Mr Douch said an autopsy showed Mereana had bruises and abrasions all over her body, and rib fractures that were about six months old.
Neuro-pathologist Dr Beth Synek told the court that Mereana had suffered three large brain traumas.
The first was six weeks to six months old, the second happened five to seven days before her death and the third had been no more than three and a half hours before her death.
Dr Synek said the first incident corresponded to the girl having been "propelled" with some force into a floor or wall, causing the brain to bounce and rebound in the skull.
"It would not have occurred by a child falling from their own height," she said.
The second trauma was caused by a "severe blow," causing the brain to move and tear veins.
Dr Synek said Mereana received another severe blow about two hours before she died.
She said the cause of death was a lack of oxygen to the brain.
The most likely scenarios were an injury-induced concussion followed by unconsciousness that led to suffocation, or trauma to the brain causing an epileptic seizure that resulted in system paralysis.
Cross-examined by Tipene's lawyer, Glen Marshall, Dr Synek said it was possible that Mereana died of an epileptic seizure independent of the trauma.
However, the kind of seizure she had was very uncommon in pre-adolescent children.
Community magistrates Pat Oettli and Linda Rangitauira agreed there was a case to answer, and Edmonds and Tipene were committed for trial in the High Court at Hamilton.
Their next callover appearance is scheduled for May 9.
Tipene is on bail and Edmonds is remanded in custody.
